Choose Your Own (CA Parks) Adventure

In our May issue's Best of the West section, we're featuring something really cool that's come out of a joint venture between California's Parks Forward Commission and the wildly innovative Bay Area design studio called Stamen. Looking to help Californians and visitors actually use the state’s public lands, the commission decided to let Stamen loose on its data, and the result? The new CaliParks browser-based heatmap, which includes every single park in the Golden State, from national forests to your own town square (11,826 parks in all), and sorts the database by activity and facility. But wait, there's more! The map includes Instagram and Flickr feeds for each park...so to celebrate the launch of the heatmap, you can even view the 10 most Instagrammed parks in the state. Number one shouldn't be too much of a surprise!

Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Griffith Park

Golden Gate Park

Yosemite National Park

Inyo National Forest

The Presidio

Angeles National Forest

Mission Bay Park

Balboa Park

San Bernardino National Forest

Check out this link, and then, go on—get out there and start exploring your parks!